Just Like my Brother
by Silver Mist4
Summary: One-shot songfic. Seto goes over the edge with his work. Feeling he has no friends, he pushes himself to become a robot. But in the end, he realizes that he is human. Not a happy ending... a little disturbing.


Hey people. This is just a one-shot songfic to Dido's "Don't Slide". I don't own the song and I certainly don't own the characters! I'm writing this in my spare time while I wait for reviews for my other story, so tell me if it sucks or not! Please review it!!!

The song lyrics will be set off in itaics and ~…~ thingies.

_~Even on a day like this when you're crawling on the floor_

_Reaching for the phone to ring anyone who knows you anymore~_

Seto sat on his bed. It was still early- only seven in the evening. Mokuba was at a friend's house. Seto smiled. 'At least Mokuba has friends,' he thought. 'But that's not true!' a different part of his mind argued. 'You have friends too. Yugi- he's a friend. You hang out with him.' 

'If that's true,' the first voice countered, 'then why doesn't he call you?'

'He does sometimes!' the optimistic part of his mind called. 'There was that time when he asked you to come to the arcade with the gang…'

"I refused. I was too busy; I had a company to run," Seto said aloud.

'It's pretty pathetic when you can count the number of friendly calls you got on one hand,' the devil in him snickered.

'No, don't listen to him!' warned the second voice. 'If you do, surely you'd go crazy!'

"I would. I already am crazy- hearing voices in my head. But if someone calls me within the next ten minutes, I'll believe you,' he said to the first voice. "If Yugi calls me, then I do have friends. If not," he continued, "then I really am nothing but a machine. Working, working… a robot. Then I'll listen to you," he said to the evil voice- the voice of his father.

And he hoped beyond hope. Seto put his hand on the phone, he was sure that Yugi would call him. He was not a robot- he had feelings. He had friends. Right? Minutes ticked by. Seto repeated, "Yugi will call me. He will call." Sure enough, the phone rang. 'Ha!' exclaimed the angel voice triumphantly. 'He called. You have friends.'

Sighing a sigh of relief, Seto picked up the phone. "Hi," he said happily into the receiver. A startled silence was the reply. "Hello?" he repeated, his voice growing colder- what if this wasn't Yugi?

"Seto-sama, your presence is needed at the office. We have received word of a possible company over-run." It was his secretary. "Seto-sama?" asked the woman nervously.

"Yes," Seto called. "Yes, I'll be right there." He put down the receiver disbelievingly. 'Am I really that alone?'

The phone rang again. 'This will be the final test,' Seto whispered. "Kaiba," he said into the receiver.

"Sir, will you be needing the use of you limo?" His driver asked.

Silence. "Yes," replied a dead tone. Seto hung up once again, tears running down his cheeks. "I really am alone!" he cried, and felt the winning voice smirk. 'I told you.' Seto straightened up, and wiped off the tears. "Machines don't cry," he explained to the mirror as he closed his door.

The phone rang again. Kaiba didn't hear it. Miles away, Yugi told the gang, "He's not at home. Probably working, and he doesn't like to be called at work. So I guess we should head down to the arcade without him?"

_~It's all right to make mistakes_

_You're only human_

_Inside everybody's hiding something~_

Seto Kaiba got into the limo that transported him from school to work. He talked with no one, and ignored the people who tried to make conversation with him. As always. No exceptions. This behavior caused classmates to look at him as a man who is superior to everyone- that they were not worth his time. Everyone saw only his cold exterior. No one had bothered to look beneath it. At first, Seto had to actually _try_ to veil his humanity. But not anymore. No one bothered to look for it. There was no point in hiding his feelings out of their reach; with a little effort, someone could uncover them. Seto knew no one would bother to. First of all, no one cared enough. Second of all, they were too dumb. It was this that proved to be his fatal mistake.

Yugi had seen the mask and had peeled it away. In Battle City, when Mokuba was taken hostage. Yugi had seen the vulnerable Seto, the loving Seto, the weak Seto. 'The real me,' he thought. 'The me father tried to kill. The me that no longer exists.' 

"Why's Seto being so cold?" wondered Yugi, who had just been ignored by Seto sweeping down the front steps of the school.

"Probably something at work," replied Jou. "Best to leave him alone."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," decided Yugi, unsurely.

"You know I am!" grinned Jou. "When have I been wrong?"

_~Staring at the same four walls, have you tried to help yourself_

The rings around your eyes they don't hide, that you need to get some rest~ 

Seto sat down at his desk. His eyes drooped. He had not slept in five days- since the phone incident. On his way home, he had seen Yugi-tachi playing at the arcade. Having a good time. Without him. 'Probably didn't even think twice about you,' said his father's voice. Nothing argued with him- the voice of Mokuba had been killed on that trip.

He had cut off his contact with Mokuba. For five days, they had not seen each other. Seto was never at home; Mokuba was not allowed to his brother's office.

Seto was tired; he was falling asleep. "No!" he screamed, pulling a stack of papers in front of him. "Robots don't sleep! Robots work. I am a robot." He started to read the papers, to edit them, to sign them. He worked for hours. Dawn came; the limo came to the front of the office building to take him to school.

"Hey Kaiba! I heard your company is doing better than ever this past weak!" called Yugi. "Getting twice the amount of work done, right? The stocks are going though the roof!" Yugi smiled. More than anything, he wanted to cheer Seto up. To him, the work-a-holic had seemed depressed. He gave everyone the cold shoulder; he was looking horrible. Even Mokuba had complained how Seto no longer spent time with him.

The haggard eyes looked at Yugi for the first time in days. Yugi wished he hadn't said anything. Towards him were pointing a set of blue orbs filled with nothing. No boredom, no hate, no mask. It was inhuman. It was the look of a robot, of a dead man.

_~It's all right to make mistakes_

_You're only human_

_Inside everybody's hiding something~_

It had been a weak. Seto hadn't slept. He hadn't eaten. He hadn't smiled or frowned. He had worked. From school to work to school to work… it was an endless cycle. He unplugged his phone. He didn't respond to his name. He didn't duel. 

One day, Yugi found a deck with three Blue Eyes White Dragons in it on his doorstep. The deck was ripped in half.

Seto could no longer use the cards- a robot had no time for games.

_~Take time to catch your breathe and choose your moment_

_Don't slide~_

Seto sighed. He was in a hospital bed. Next to him was a bouquet of roses and a card. "Stop and smell the flowers." He had no time for this. He had a company to run.

"You'll need to stay in here for a while, Mr. Kaiba. You did quite some damage to your body."

They brought him his computer. They let no visitors into his room. He worked. He was given narcotics. His computer was taken away. Visitors came.

He was to be released the next day.

~Even at a time like this when the morning seems so far~ 

Seto Kaiba, CEO of Kaiba Corporation, sat at his desk as the computer in front of him illuminated his face. His skin glowed eerily pale, like a ghost's; everything around him was dark. It was night- past midnight, the curtains were closed against the stars. No sound other than the typing of letters had been heard in the room for hours.

The 6:59 morning alarm rang. Seto hid it and climbed into bed. A minute later, Mokuba came in to "wake" him. He got up. He went to school.

_~Think that pain belongs to you but it's happened to us all~_

He collapsed in school- a heart attack. He screamed in pain as he fell down the stairs. 'Robots don't feel pain,' he realized. 'I can't be a robot! I'm not a machine! I'm just a boy, a 16 year old boy. I want to duel and go to the arcade. I want to have fun.' Seto cried from the pain. 'Mokuba was my friends. Yugi-tachi were always my friends…' Seto wept.

_~It's all right to make mistakes_

_You're only human_

_Inside everybody's hiding something~_

Yugi came to visit Seto in the hospital. Seto smiled at him. His eyes were filled with emotion- no mask. His eyes were filled with regret, sorrow, friendship, fear. He was hiding nothing.

"Why, Seto?" Yugi asked. Seto just smiled.

"Don't worry about it."

_~Take time to catch your breathe and choose your moment_

_Don't slide~_

They dueled. Yugi taped Seto's cards together. Seto won the game. Yugi was shocked.

"Everything has a heart," Seto whispered.

He was let out of the hospital, and warned not to work too much. He smiled and nodded. That night, the clicking of the keys never ceased. 

_~You brought this on yourself_

_And it's high time you left it there~_

They were all in the hospital. Again. Again and again and again. "Habit," Seto joked, "It was my drug. It was my life."

"What about me?" Mokuba cried, tears steaming down his face. "What about me?"

_~Lie here and rest your head_

_And dream of something else instead~_

Seto looked peaceful when he was asleep. The circles under his eyes were covered with concealer. His pale cheeks were rouged. His blue lips were covered with lipstick.

Tears rained down on his body. The tears of two boys.

On his gravestone were carved the words, "His only fault was his love of work."

In the night, a barking laugh echoed across the room. 'If only you knew half of it.'

In the night, Mokuba woke up. He sat down in his brother's chair. He started to type.

~Don't slide~ 

Thanks for reading! So, how was it? Boring? I'm afraid it may have come out dull. Tell me if it did or didn't, if it was dark or a stupid attempt. Do not be afraid to flame me. I can take it if I deserve it.


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